GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile vs GTX 280M SLI

Place in the ranking	721	205
Place by popularity	not in top-100	90
Power efficiency	1.59	24.26
Architecture	G9x (2007−2010)	Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code name	N10E-GTX	GA106
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	2 March 2009 (15 years ago)	11 May 2021 (3 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	256	2560
Core clock speed	585 MHz	735 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1035 MHz
Number of transistors	1508 Million	13,250 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	75 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	82.80
Floating-point processing power	no data	5.299 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	48
TMUs	no data	80
Tensor Cores	no data	80
Ray Tracing Cores	no data	20

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop size	large	large
Interface	no data	PCIe 4.0 x16

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	GDDR3	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	4 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	950 MHz	1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	192.0 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors

no data

No outputs

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	10	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	no data	6.6
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	3.0
Vulkan	-	1.2
CUDA	+	8.6

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD	9−10 −733%	75 +733%
1440p	5−6 −760%	43 +760%
4K	3−4 −800%	27 +800%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7

−933%

62
+933%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −450%	55−60 +450%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −2900%	60 +2900%
Battlefield 5	6−7 −1267%	80−85 +1267%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −538%	50−55 +538%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −883%	59 +883%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −729%	55−60 +729%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −622%	65−70 +622%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −668%	140−150 +668%
Hitman 3	8−9 −900%	80 +900%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −379%	110−120 +379%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −2760%	143 +2760%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −1125%	98 +1125%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −554%	85−90 +554%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −478%	231 +478%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −450%	55−60 +450%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −1650%	35 +1650%
Battlefield 5	6−7 −1267%	80−85 +1267%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −538%	50−55 +538%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −650%	45 +650%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −729%	55−60 +729%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −622%	65−70 +622%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −668%	140−150 +668%
Hitman 3	8−9 −863%	77 +863%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −379%	110−120 +379%
Metro Exodus	5−6 −2180%	114 +2180%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −875%	78 +875%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −708%	105 +708%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −260%	50−55 +260%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −408%	203 +408%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −450%	55−60 +450%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	2−3 −1200%	26 +1200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9 −538%	50−55 +538%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −567%	40 +567%
Far Cry 5	7−8 −729%	55−60 +729%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 −668%	140−150 +668%
Hitman 3	8−9 −738%	67 +738%
Horizon Zero Dawn	24−27 −283%	92 +283%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −592%	90 +592%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −233%	50 +233%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 +42.9%	28 −42.9%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9

−913%

81
+913%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	6−7 −683%	45−50 +683%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −660%	35−40 +660%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −767%	24−27 +767%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −1300%	27−30 +1300%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −1000%	22 +1000%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −625%	27−30 +625%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	140−150
Hitman 3	8−9 −475%	46 +475%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −763%	69 +763%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 −1450%	30−35 +1450%
Watch Dogs: Legion	20−22 −595%	139 +595%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

−700%

56
+700%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −1150%	24−27 +1150%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −850%	18−20 +850%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −650%	14−16 +650%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −1200%	12−14 +1200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −1300%	14−16 +1300%
Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	10
Far Cry 5	1−2 −1300%	14−16 +1300%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −3300%	30−35 +3300%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −900%	10 +900%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−625%

29
+625%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	26 +0%	26 +0%
Metro Exodus	60 +0%	60 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	61 +0%	61 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	20 +0%	20 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Metro Exodus	47 +0%	47 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	29 +0%	29 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

+0%

This is how GTX 280M SLI and RTX 3050 Ti Mobile compete in popular games:

RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 733% faster in 1080p
RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 760% faster in 1440p
RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 800% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 280M SLI is 43% faster.
in Forza Horizon 4, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is 3300% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 280M SLI is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is ahead in 61 test (87%)
there's a draw in 8 tests (11%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.44	26.27
Recency	2 March 2009	11 May 2021
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	4 GB
Chip lithography	55 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	75 Watt

RTX 3050 Ti Mobile has a 663.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 12 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 587.5% more advanced lithography process, and 100% lower power consumption.

The GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 280M SLI in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.